Method for manufacturing high electron mobility transistor with at least two barrier layers

ABSTRACT

A method for fabricating high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) includes the steps of: forming a buffer layer on a substrate; forming a first barrier layer on the buffer layer; forming a patterned mask on the first barrier layer; forming a second barrier layer adjacent to two sides of the patterned mask; removing the patterned mask to form a recess; forming a gate electrode in the recess; and forming a source electrode and a drain electrode adjacent to two sides of the gate electrode.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/411,053filed May 13, 2019, and incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) andmethod for fabricating the same.

2. Description of the Prior Art

High electron mobility transistor (HEMT) fabricated from GaN-basedmaterials have various advantages in electrical, mechanical, andchemical aspects of the field. For instance, advantages including wideband gap, high break down voltage, high electron mobility, high elasticmodulus, high piezoelectric and piezoresistive coefficients, andchemical inertness. All of these advantages allow GaN-based materials tobe used in numerous applications including high intensity light emittingdiodes (LEDs), power switching devices, regulators, battery protectors,display panel drivers, and communication devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method forfabricating high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) includes the stepsof: forming a buffer layer on a substrate; forming a first barrier layeron the buffer layer; forming a patterned mask on the first barrierlayer; forming a second barrier layer adjacent to two sides of thepatterned mask; removing the patterned mask to form a recess; forming agate electrode in the recess; and forming a source electrode and a drainelectrode adjacent to two sides of the gate electrode.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a high electronmobility transistor (HEMT) includes: a buffer layer on a substrate; afirst barrier layer on the buffer layer; a gate electrode on the firstbarrier layer; a second barrier layer adjacent to two sides of the gateelectrode; and a source electrode and a drain electrode adjacent to twosides of the gate electrode on the second barrier layer. Preferably, thefirst barrier layer and the second barrier comprise differentconcentrations.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a highelectron mobility transistor (HEMT) includes: a buffer layer on asubstrate; a barrier layer on the buffer layer; a gate dielectric layeron the barrier layer; a work function metal layer on gate dielectriclayer; a gate electrode on the work function metal layer; and a sourceelectrode and a drain electrode adjacent to two sides of the gateelectrode. Preferably, the work function metal layer comprises a p-typemetal oxide layer.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt becomeobvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiment that isillustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1-4 illustrate a method for fabricating a HEMT according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a structural view of a HEMT applied to power deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 6-9 illustrate a method for fabricating HEMT according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates a structural view of a HEMT according to anembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to the FIGS. 1-4, FIGS. 1-4 illustrate a method forfabricating a HEMT according to an embodiment of the present invention.As shown in the FIG. 1, a substrate 12 such as a substrate made fromsilicon, silicon carbide, or aluminum oxide (or also referred to assapphire) is provided, in which the substrate 12 could be asingle-layered substrate, a multi-layered substrate, gradient substrate,or combination thereof. According to other embodiment of the presentinvention, the substrate 12 could also include a silicon-on-insulator(SOI) substrate.

Next, a buffer layer 14 is formed on the substrate 12. According to anembodiment of the present invention, the buffer layer 14 is preferablymade of III-V semiconductors such as gallium nitride (GaN), in which athickness of the buffer layer 14 could be between 0.5 microns to 10microns. According to an embodiment of the present invention, theformation of the buffer layer 14 could be accomplished by amolecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) process, a metal organic chemical vapordeposition (MOCVD) process, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, ahydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) process, or combination thereof.

Next, a first barrier layer 16 is formed on the surface of the bufferlayer 14. In this embodiment, the first barrier layer 16 is preferablymade of III-V semiconductor such as aluminum gallium nitride(Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)N), in which 0<x<1, x being less than or equal to 20%,the first barrier layer 16 preferably includes an epitaxial layer formedthrough epitaxial growth process. Similar to the buffer layer 14, theformation of the first barrier layer 16 on the buffer layer 14 could beaccomplished by a molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) process, a metal organicchemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process, a chemical vapor deposition(CVD) process, a hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) process, orcombination thereof.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2, a patterned mask 18 is formed on the firstbarrier layer 16. In this embodiment, the formation of the patternedmask 18 could be accomplished by depositing a dielectric material suchas silicon nitride on the surface of the first barrier layer 16, and anetching process is conducted by using another patterned mask (not shown)as mask to remove part of the dielectric material to form a patternedmask 18 on the surface of the first barrier layer 16.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3, a second barrier layer 20 is formed adjacentto two sides of the patterned mask 18. In this embodiment, the firstbarrier layer 16 and the second barrier layer 20 are preferably made ofsame material such that the second barrier layer 20 is also made ofIII-V semiconductor such as aluminum gallium nitride (Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)N),in which 0<x<1. It should be noted that the first barrier layer 16 andthe second barrier layer 20 preferably include different concentrationsof Al or more specifically the concentration of Al of the first barrierlayer 16 is less than the concentration of Al of the second barrierlayer 20. For instance, in contrast to the x value of Al of the firstbarrier layer 16 being less than or equal of 20%, the second barrierlayer 20 if including III-V semiconductor such as aluminum galliumnitride (Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)N), in which 0<x<1, the x value is preferablygreater than 20% and less than 40%.

Moreover, the thickness of the first barrier layer 16 is preferably lessthan the thickness of the second barrier layer 20, in which thethickness of the first barrier layer 16 is preferably less than 10 nm ormost preferably at 6 nm while the thickness of the second barrier layer20 is preferably between 10-15 nm. Similar to the formation of the firstbarrier layer 16, the formation of the second barrier layer 20 adjacentto two sides of the patterned mask 18 and on top of the first barrierlayer 16 could be accomplished by a molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE)process, a metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process, achemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, a hydride vapor phase epitaxy(HVPE) process, or combination thereof.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, it would be desirable to first remove thepatterned mask 18 to form a recess (not shown) between the secondbarrier layer 20, and then forming a gate electrode 22 in the recess anda source electrode 24 and a drain electrode 26 adjacent to two sides ofthe gate electrode 22. In this embodiment, the gate electrode 22, thesource electrode, 24, and the drain electrode 26 are all made of metalmaterial, in which the source electrode 24 and drain electrode 26 arepreferably made of same material while the source electrode 24 and thedrain electrode 26 and the gate electrode 22 could be made of samematerial or different materials. According to an embodiment of thepresent invention, each of the gate electrode 22, source electrode 24and drain electrode 26 could include gold (Au), silver (Ag), platinum(Pt), titanium (Ti), aluminum (Al), tungsten (W), palladium (Pd), orcombination thereof. According to other embodiments of the presentinvention, it would be desirable to conduct an electroplating process,sputtering process, resistance heating evaporation process, electronbeam evaporation process, physical vapor deposition (PVD) process,chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, or combination thereof to formelectrode material in the recess and on the surface of the secondbarrier layer 20, and then pattern the electrode material throughetching process to form the gate electrode 22, the source electrode 24,and the drain electrode 26 respectively.

It should be noted that since the gate electrode 22 is formed within therecess while the source electrode 24 and drain electrode 26 are formedon the surface of the higher second barrier layer 20 adjacent to twosides of the recess, the top surface of the gate electrode 22 ispreferably higher than the top surface of the second barrier layer 20 onthe adjacent two sides and lower than the top surfaces of the sourceelectrode 24 and drain electrode 26. Moreover, despite the fact that thegate electrode 22 and the source electrode 24 and drain electrode 26 onadjacent two sides are formed at the same time or separately, the heightof the gate electrode 22 could be equal to the height of each of thesource electrode 24 and drain electrode 26, greater than the height ofeach of the source electrode 24 and drain electrode 26, or less than theheight of each of the source electrode 24 and drain electrode 26, whichare all within the scope of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, FIG. 5 illustrates a structural view of a HEMTapplied to power device according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. As shown in FIG. 5, in contrast to removing the patternedmask 18 to form a recess and then directly forming a gate electrode 22,source electrode 24, and drain electrode 26 as shown in FIG. 4, it wouldalso be desirable to first form a gate dielectric layer 28 covering thesurface of the second barrier layer 20 and filling part of the recess,conduct another photo-etching process to remove part of the gatedielectric layer 28 adjacent to two sides of the recess, and then followthe aforementioned process by forming a gate electrode 22 on the gatedielectric layer 28 disposed within the recess and a source electrode 24and drain electrode 26 adjacent to two sides of the gate electrode 22.In this embodiment, the gate dielectric layer 28 is preferably disposedbetween the gate electrode 22 and the first barrier layer 16 and secondbarrier layer 20, in which the gate dielectric layer 28 includes aU-shape cross-section. Viewing from a more detailed perspective, thegate dielectric layer 28 further includes a U-shaped portion 30 disposedbetween the gate electrode 22 and the first barrier layer 16 and secondbarrier layer 20, a first horizontal portion 32 disposed on one side ofthe U-shaped portion 30 and contacting the source electrode 24 directly,and a second horizontal portion 34 disposed on another side of theU-shaped portion 30 and contacting the drain electrode 26 directly.

In this embodiment, the gate dielectric layer 28 could include SiO₂,silicon nitride (SiN), a high-k dielectric layer, or combinationthereof, in which the high-k dielectric layer could be selected fromdielectric materials having dielectric constant (k value) larger than 4.For instance, the high-k dielectric layer may be selected from hafniumoxide (HfO₂), hafnium silicon oxide (HfSiO₄), hafnium silicon oxynitride(HfSiON), aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃), lanthanum oxide (La₂O₃), tantalumoxide (Ta₂O₅), yttrium oxide (Y₂O₃), zirconium oxide (ZrO₂), strontiumtitanate oxide (SrTiO₃), zirconium silicon oxide (ZrSiO₄), hafniumzirconium oxide (HfZrO₄), strontium bismuth tantalate (SrBi₂Ta₂O₉, SBT),lead zirconate titanate (PbZr_(x)Ti_(1-x)O₃, PZT), barium strontiumtitanate (Ba_(x)Sr_(1-x)TiO₃, BST) or a combination thereof.

Referring to FIGS. 6-9, FIGS. 6-9 illustrate a method for fabricatingHEMT according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown inFIG. 6, a substrate 42 such as a substrate made from silicon, siliconcarbide, or aluminum oxide (or also referred to as sapphire) isprovided, in which the substrate 42 could be a single-layered substrate,a multi-layered substrate, gradient substrate, or combination thereof.According to other embodiment of the present invention, the substrate 42could also include a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate.

Next, a buffer layer 44 is formed on the substrate 42. According to anembodiment of the present invention, the buffer layer 44 is preferablymade of III-V semiconductors such as gallium nitride (GaN), in which athickness of the buffer layer 44 could be between 0.5 microns to 10microns. According to an embodiment of the present invention, theformation of the buffer layer 44 could be accomplished by amolecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) process, a metal organic chemical vapordeposition (MOCVD) process, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, ahydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) process, or combination thereof.

Next, a barrier layer 46 is formed on the surface of the buffer layer44. In this embodiment, the barrier layer 46 is preferably made of III-Vsemiconductor such as aluminum gallium nitride (Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)N), inwhich 0<x<1 and the barrier layer 46 preferably includes an epitaxiallayer formed through epitaxial growth process. Similar to the bufferlayer 44, the formation of the barrier layer 46 on the buffer layer 44could be accomplished by a molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) process, a metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process, a chemical vapordeposition (CVD) process, a hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) process,or combination thereof.

Next, as shown in FIG. 7, a gate dielectric layer 48 is formed on thesurface of the barrier layer 46. In this embodiment, the gate dielectriclayer 48 could include SiO₂, silicon nitride (SiN), a high-k dielectriclayer, or combination thereof, in which the high-k dielectric layercould be selected from dielectric materials having dielectric constant(k value) larger than 4. For instance, the high-k dielectric layer maybe selected from hafnium oxide (HfO₂), hafnium silicon oxide (HfSiO₄),hafnium silicon oxynitride (HfSiON), aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃), lanthanumoxide (La₂O₃), tantalum oxide (Ta₂O₅), yttrium oxide (Y₂O₃), zirconiumoxide (ZrO₂), strontium titanate oxide (SrTiO₃), zirconium silicon oxide(ZrSiO₄), hafnium zirconium oxide (HfZrO₄), strontium bismuth tantalate(SrBi₂Ta₂O₉, SBT), lead zirconate titanate (PbZr_(x)Ti_(1-x)O₃, PZT),barium strontium titanate (Ba_(x)Sr_(1-x)TiO₃, BST) or a combinationthereof.

Next, as shown in FIG. 8, a work function metal layer 50 is formed onthe surface of the gate dielectric layer 48, in which the work functionmetal layer 50 preferably includes a p-type metal oxide layer.Specifically, the work function metal layer 50 preferably includesmagnesium zinc oxide (MgZnO), copper oxide (CuO), nickel oxide (NiO),chromium oxide (Cr₂O₃), cobalt oxide (Co₃O₄). manganese oxide (Mn₃O₄),or combination thereof. According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, the formation of the work function metal layer 50 could beused to lower current leakage of the gate electrode and control thethreshold voltage of device. Moreover, as the work function metal layer50 is formed by a low temperature growth process, the occurrence ofcrystallization under the gate dielectric layer 48 could be preventedafter the work function metal layer 50 is formed.

Next, as shown in FIG. 9, a pattern transfer process could be conductedby first using a patterned mask (not shown) to remove part of the workfunction metal layer 50 and part of the gate dielectric layer 48 toexpose the surface of the barrier layer 46 on adjacent two sides, andthen forming a gate electrode 52 on the work function metal layer 50 anda source electrode 54 and a drain electrode 56 adjacent to two sides ofthe gate electrode 52. Similar to the aforementioned embodiment, thegate electrode 52, the source electrode, 54, and the drain electrode 56are all made of metal material, in which the source electrode 54 anddrain electrode 56 are preferably made of same material while the sourceelectrode 54 and the drain electrode 56 and the gate electrode 52 couldbe made of same material or different materials. According to anembodiment of the present invention, each of the gate electrode 52,source electrode 54 and drain electrode 56 could include gold (Au),silver (Ag), platinum (Pt), titanium (Ti), aluminum (Al), tungsten (W),palladium (Pd), or combination thereof. According to other embodimentsof the present invention, it would be desirable to conduct anelectroplating process, sputtering process, resistance heatingevaporation process, electron beam evaporation process, physical vapordeposition (PVD) process, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, orcombination thereof to form an electrode material on the surface of thework function metal layer 50 and barrier layer 46, and then pattern theelectrode material through etching process to form the gate electrode52, the source electrode 54, and the drain electrode 56 respectively.

Structurally, the top surfaces of the source electrode 54 and drainelectrode 56 could be lower than, even with, or higher than the topsurface of the work function metal layer 50 but slightly lower than thetop surface of the gate electrode 52, the height of each of the sourceelectrode 54 and drain electrode 56 could be equal to, less than, orgreater than the height of the gate electrode 52, and the width of thegate electrode 52 is preferably less than the width of the work functionmetal layer 50 and/or width of the gate dielectric layer 48. It shouldbe noted that even though the gate dielectric layer 48 pertains to be asingle-layered structure in this embodiment, according to an embodimentof the present invention, the gate dielectric layer 48 could also be acomposite structure further including an interfacial layer made ofsilicon oxide and a high-k dielectric layer disposed on the surface ofthe interfacial layer. In other words, the gate dielectric layer 48 madeof both interfacial layer and high-k dielectric layer and the workfunction metal layer 50 together constitute a tri-layered structuresandwiched between the barrier layer 46 and the gate electrode 52.According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, if thegate dielectric layer 48 were to include at least a high-k dielectriclayer and/or a metal oxide layer, the metal oxide layer within the gatedielectric layer 48 and the metal oxide layer 50 above are preferablymade of different materials.

Referring to FIG. 10, FIG. 10 illustrates a structural view of a HEMTaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.10, it would also be desirable to combine the structure shown in FIG. 5with the process of forming a work function metal layer on the gatedielectric layer as shown in FIG. 8 to obtain another structure. Forinstance, it would be desirable to first form a gate dielectric layer 28as shown in FIG. 5, form a work function metal layer 50 from FIG. 8 onthe surface of the gate dielectric layer 28, conduct anotherphoto-etching process to remove part of the work function metal layer 50and part of the gate dielectric layer 28 adjacent to two sides of therecess, and then following the aforementioned process to form a gateelectrode 22 on the work function metal layer 50 in the recess and asource electrode 24 and drain electrode 26 adjacent to two sides of thegate electrode 22. Preferably, the work function metal layer 50 and thework function metal layer from the aforementioned embodiment are made ofsame material. Moreover, since the work function metal layer 50 and thegate dielectric layer 28 are patterned at the same time, the two layers28, 50 preferably share same cross-section profile. For instance, eachof the layers 28, 50 preferably include the aforementioned U-shapedportion and two horizontal portions connected to two sides of theU-shaped portion, and the details of which are not repeated herein forthe sake of brevity.

Similar to the embodiment shown in FIG. 9, even though the gatedielectric layer 28 shown in FIG. 10 pertains to be a single-layeredstructure, according to another embodiment of the present invention, thegate dielectric layer 28 could be a composite structure furtherincluding an interfacial layer made of silicon oxide disposed on thesurface of the first barrier layer 16 and a high-k dielectric layerdisposed on the surface of the interfacial layer. In other words, thegate dielectric layer 28 made of both interfacial layer and high-kdielectric layer and the work function metal layer 50 togetherconstitute a tri-layered structure sandwiched between the first barrierlayer 16 and the gate electrode 22. According to yet another embodimentof the present invention, if the gate dielectric layer 28 were toinclude at least a high-k dielectric layer and/or a metal oxide layer,the metal oxide layer within the gate dielectric layer 28 and the metaloxide layer 50 above are preferably made of different materials.

Typically, as shown in FIGS. 4, 5, 9, 10, a heterojunction is formed atthe interface between the buffer layer and barrier layer as a result ofthe bandgap difference between the two layers. Essentially a quantumwell is formed in the banding portion of the conduction band of theheterojunction to constrain the electrons generated by piezoelectricityso that a channel region 58 or two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) isformed at the junction between the buffer layer and barrier layer toform conductive current.

In contrast to the conventional approach of using etching process toremove part of the barrier layer and even part of the channel region toform a recess and then form a gate electrode in the recess to fabricateenhanced mode HEMT device, the embodiment of the present invention fromFIGS. 1-4 preferably forms a patterned mask 18 on the first barrierlayer 16 to define the location of the gate electrode formed afterwards,forms a second barrier layer 20 adjacent to two sides of the patternedmask 18, and then forms the gate electrode 22, source electrode 24, anddrain electrode 26 after removing the patterned mask 18 to form arecess. By using this approach it would be desirable to prevent etchingprocess from damaging the region directly under the gate electrode whileremoving the barrier layer thereby affecting the threshold voltage ofthe device as found in conventional art.

Moreover, the present invention not only adjusts the thickness of thefirst barrier layer 16 and second barrier layer 20 directly under andadjacent to two sides of the gate electrode 22, but also adjusts theconcentration of Al in the second barrier layer 20 adjacent to two sidesof the gate electrode 22 so that the operation of the HEMT is switchedfrom “normally on” to “normally off”. Specifically, the presentinvention lowers the thickness of the first barrier layer 16 directlyunder the gate electrode 22 and increases the thickness of the secondbarrier layer 20 adjacent to two sides of the gate electrode 22, inwhich the thickness of the first barrier layer 16 directly under thegate electrode 22 is controlled under 10 nm while the thickness of thesecond barrier layer 20 is between 10-15 nm. Meanwhile, theconcentration of Al within the first barrier layer 16 is adjusted to belower than the concentration of Al within the second barrier layer 20.By doing to, the 2DEG directly under the gate electrode 22 could bereduced to achieve a “normally off” operation mode.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerousmodifications and alterations of the device and method may be made whileretaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the abovedisclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and boundsof the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for fabricating high electron mobilitytransistor (HEMT), comprising: forming a buffer layer on a substrate;forming a first barrier layer on the buffer layer; forming a patternedmask on the first barrier layer; forming a second barrier layer adjacentto two sides of the patterned mask; removing the patterned mask to forma recess; forming a gate electrode in the recess; and forming a sourceelectrode and a drain electrode adjacent to two sides of the gateelectrode, wherein a top surface of the gate electrode is lower than atop surface of the source electrode.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinthe buffer layer comprises a group III-V semiconductor.
 3. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the buffer layer comprises gallium nitride (GaN). 4.The method of claim 1, wherein the first barrier layer and the secondbarrier layer comprise Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)N.
 5. The method of claim 4,wherein the first barrier layer and the second barrier layer comprisedifferent concentrations of Al.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein aconcentration of Al of the first barrier layer is less than aconcentration of Al of the second barrier layer.
 7. The method of claim1, wherein a thickness of the first barrier layer is less than athickness of the second barrier layer.
 8. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising performing epitaxial growth process to form the secondbarrier layer.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising forming agate dielectric layer on the second barrier layer before forming thegate electrode.